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Pony Express Before 1860 it was virtually impossible to get a letter or other form of correspondence from St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California in less than 20 days. 20 days seemed entirely too long for the west coast merchants and bankers to wait for documents from the east. So three men, William Russell, Alexander Majors and William Waddell created the Pony Express. The Pony Express ensured fast and safe delivery of the mail. To ensure the fast pace delivery of the mail, the Pony Express purchased 600 broncos, mostly thorough breads, mustangs, and morgans. Still the horses weren’t all needed. They also had to find men who would be able to handle the adverse weather conditions, Indians and be able to ride for 75 miles with out stopping. The riders were generally under 20 years of age and weighed no more than 120 pounds. They had to be excellent horsemen and have experience with guns. The Pony Express was a relay of mail running day and night. On April 3rd, 1860, the first rider Johnny Fug headed west bound for Sacramento. Every rider road for 75 miles and they would switch horses every 10-15 miles. The very first letter traveled the 2,000-mile journey from St Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California in only 10 days to the hour of departure. This journey used 27 men and 133 horses. The Pony Express cut the normal 20 days of travel into 10 days, nearly cutting it in half. With the amazing delivery of mail in 10 days across 2,000-miles of prairie land, mountains and deserts led many people to use them. With the growth communication between the east and the west the Pony Express grew in popularity. The Pony Express proved that the central route through the U.S could be traveled all winter. It supported the cattle route for the Transcontinental Railroad to meet with the Union Pacific Railroad. Communications was kept open with California during the Civil War. The Pony Express was the fastest communication between the east and west until the telegraph. It captured the hearts and imagination of people all over the world. With all its success the Pony Express like all things suffered failures. Such as the owners spent $17,000, on the Pony Express and has a 2,000 deficit.
Two railway companies competed in this venture: The Central Pacific company laid track eastward from Sacramento, California and at the same time The Union Pacific company began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska and when the two lines met, the transcontinental railway would be complete. Each company wanted to cover more ground than the other – not just out of pride and competitiveness, but ...
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
The balloon tires were introduced along with the rail road’s established “piggy-back” service. The first mechanically refrigerated van was introduced. In 1925, there were 500,000 miles of hard surface roads in the U.S. In 1926, a fully loaded 2 ton truck was driven from New York to San Francisco in five days. Theodore Alfred Peterman was the founder of Peterbilt Motors Company in 1937.
B. Summary of Evidence The transcontinental railroad was a 1,800 mile railroad linking Omaha, Missouri with Sacramento, California. This railroad was built through varying environmental conditions including grassy plains, deserts, and mountains such as the Sierra. The railroad revolutionized transportation in the nineteenth century (Galloway 4). The First Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s in order to connect the Eastern and Western coasts of the United States. In the book The Railroads, statistical data describes that “In 1830, 23 miles of railroad track were being operated in the United States; by 1890 that figure had grown to 166,703 miles, as cities and villages were linked across the land....
The railroad coexisted with Western Expansion, the railroad allowed for quicker travel and Western Expansion allowed for the railroad business to progress. The Transcontinental Railroad was a product of Western Expansion and the construction of more railroads. The Transcontinental Railroad began to be built after the Pacific Railroad Act passed in 1862, that promoted and aided the construction of this railroad. The Transcontinental Railroad was built to link the east to the west in the United States. The Central Pacific and The Union Pacific Railroad Companies were appointed the task of completing the railroad where they would race to finish first and reach the west coast. Before the
As the need of human transportation and various forms of cargo began to rise in the United States of America, a group of railroads with terminal connections along the way began to form across the land mass of this country, ending with the result of one of the most influential innovations in American history, allowing trade to flow easily from location to location, and a fast form of transportation, named the Transcontinental Railroad.
It originally took about 6 months to get from the west of the US to the east, but now it only took 7 days. With railroads expanding all across the country, agriculture was affected in a mostly positive
Steamboats were invented in the early 1800's, but it took until the 1820's to make them a common site on U.S. rivers. In the 1840's their popularity kept rising as they continued to increase the amount of trade possible. The reaper, for farming, was also developed in 1831. This allowed more farming in the west on the prairies. Many other farming machines were also developed during this time period, they all made farming in the west much more popular, easier, and profitable. The Trans-continental railroad was started in 1862, even though other trains were already running in different parts of the U.S. The telegraph also went up along with the railroads, although the first time it was used was in 1844. All four of these major technological advancements made the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny.
A race from the start, a rider jumped to the back of his fresh pony and bolted from the station, sweating and tired, but always knowing the mail must go through, the young boy spurred the pony on as the station keepers watched the dust rise under the feet of the United States fastest mail transport… Genghis Khan is often credited with the idea of a Pony Express, more however a relay then a mail service. He began the horse relay for provisions, using a station every 40 miles, then there was William “Lightfoot” Visscher, who’s credited with working the mail into the idea. He was a rider from a Boston paper, and used ponies to run for news (Bloss 13). And all the while the United States was growing, with it grew the demand for communication between east and west.
Spearman, Frank H. "The First Transcontinental Railroad." Harper's Monthly Magazine, Volume 109 2011: 711-20. Web. 29 Sept. 2013. .
With the East and the West being brought together by the railroad, goods were able to go to m...
The first post office in the United States was established in seventeen seventy-five, which makes it the oldest most reliable post service in history. It is a well know fact that in the beginning, this business was called the Pony Express, which began in eighteen sixty. Years later the US Post office has become the largest company that we rely on to deliver our mail. This mailing institution delivers more mail to a larger area than any other delivery service in the world. They are rendering assistance to more than one million people in North America. There are over six hundred thousand employees and in excess of thirty four thousand facilities nationwide. This institution thrives to provide customer service, available products, transport of products, and accessibility to all consumers. The United States Postal Service is a reliable, excellent, and efficient delivery service. They supply a wide variety of convenient products to help with any shipping needs consumers may have.
At the beginning of the industrial revolution in England during the mid-nineteenth century, the railroad was the most innovative mode of transportation known. The British Rail system was a forerunner in railroad technology, uses, and underground engineering. Though the rail system was extremely slow at first and prohibitively expensive to build and run, the British were not to be dissuaded in their pursuit of non-animal driven transportation. The most advanced mode of transportation prior to the introduction of the rail system was the horse drawn omnibus on a track, called a tram. This paper will examine the rail system from a cultural perspective, presenting the impact the railway had on everyday lives in Victorian London and its surrounding communities.
Federal Express is an express transportation company, founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Smith. During his college years, he recognized that the United States was becoming a service-oriented economy and needed a reliable, overnight delivery service company. In 1965, as a undergraduate at Yale University, Smith wrote a term paper about the passenger route systems used by most airfreight shippers, which he viewed as economically inadequate. He wrote of the need for shippers to have a system designed specifically for airfreight that could accommodate time-sensitive shipments such as medicines, computer parts and electronics.
As the first rays of the sun peak over the horizon, penetrating the dark, soft light illuminates the mist rising up from the ground, forming an eerie, almost surreal landscape. The ground sparkles, wet with dew, and while walking from the truck to the barn, my riding boots soak it in. The crickets still chirp, only slower now. They know that daytime fast approaches. Sounds, the soft rustling of hooves, a snort, and from far down the aisle a sharp whinny that begs for breakfast, inform me that the crickets are not the only ones preparing for the day.